(in color trunks) Deontay Wilder knocks down Tyson Fury a 2nd time in the 12 round at the Staple Center Saturday. The fight was draw between both fighters from the judges scoring . Los Angeles, CA. Dec 1,2018
Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing photographer

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(in color trunks) Deontay Wilder knocks down Tyson Fury a 2nd time in the 12 round at the Staple Center Saturday. The fight was draw between both fighters from the judges scoring . Los Angeles, CA. Dec 1,2018
Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing photographer

(in color trunks) Deontay Wilder knocks down Tyson Fury a 2nd time in the 12 round at the Staple Center Saturday. The fight was draw between both fighters from the judges scoring . Los Angeles, CA. Dec 1,2018
Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing photographer

Despite getting out-boxed over most of the 12 rounds, often throwing punches into the air because Tyson Fury is so good defensively, Wilder was able to score knockdowns of Fury in the ninth and 12th rounds. That enabled Wilder to retain his title via a split-draw in front of 17,698 on Saturday at Staples Center.

Alejadro Rochin of Mexico scored Wilder the winner 115-111, Robert Tapper of Canada had Fury winning 114-112 and Phil Edwards of the United Kingdom had it a 113-113 draw.

This newspaper had Fury winning 114-112.

Wilder, 33, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is 40-0-1 with 39 knockouts. Fury, 30, of England, is 27-0-1 with 19 knockouts.

Wilder’s left eye was puffy. He knew the knockdowns saved his title, even though he seemed to believe they should have given him an outright victory.

“I think with the two knockdowns, I definitely won the fight,” Wilder said. “We poured our hearts out tonight. We’re both warriors, but with those two drops, I think I won the fight.

“I came out slow. I rushed my punches. I didn’t sit still. I was too hesitant. I started overthrowing the right hand and I just couldn’t adjust.”

He did, just in time. Not that Fury agreed. In his mind, he won.

“We’re on away soil,” Fury said. “I got knocked down twice, but I still believe I won that fight. I’m being a total professional here. I went to Germany to fight (Wladimir) Klitschko and I went to America to fight Deontay Wilder. God bless America. The ‘Gypsy King’ has returned.”

Before the fight, both guys said that whoever wins would be considered the best heavyweight in the world, fellow champion Anthony Joshua notwithstanding. Afterward, Wilder said he and Fury are indeed the top dogs.

“We’re the two best in the world and we proved it tonight,” Wilder said. “When you get two warriors, you get a great fight. That’s what we proved tonight and I’m ready to do it again.”

Wilder said he would love his next fight to be a rematch with Fury.

That’s fine with Fury.

“One hundred percent, we’ll do the rematch,” he said. “We’re two great champions. Me and this man are the two best heavyweights on the planet.”

Fury talked about his defense, and the way he stifled the heavy-handed Wilder most of the way.

“I’m what you call a pro athlete that loves to box,” Fury said. “I don’t know anyone on the planet that can move like that. That man is a fearsome puncher and I was able to avoid that.”

He reiterated, “The world knows I won the fight.”

Other than the two knockdowns he suffered, Fury was indeed outstanding defensively.

After Wilder decked Fury for the second time in the fight in the 12th with a mean right-left combination, Wilder went after Fury but could not finish him. Fury then hurt Wilder with a combination with about a minute left.

Through three rounds there weren’t a lot in the way of clean punches landed. Fury slipped under several big punches from Wilder. Fury, always moving his hands in herky-jerky fashion, was not easy to hit.

Fury dodged two big punches near the end of the fourth round, and just nodded to Wilder as if to say, “See, told you.”

Wilder also missed badly on a right-left combination near the end of the fifth. Fury didn’t land anything heavy in the round, but a couple of jabs and a combination seemed to give him the round.

It was more of the same in the sixth, with Wilder finding it nearly impossible to land a hard punch. He was trying, though.

Fury landed a couple of nice right crosses in the seventh. Wilder tried to roar back, but Fury was able to evade his assault for the most part with more stellar defense.

In the eighth round, it was easy to see that Wilder’s left eye was closing some.

Wilder got back in the fight when he decked Fury with a barrage of punches in the ninth round, the final blow of the onslaught to the top of Fury’s head.

When the 10th round ended in a neutral corner, Fury stuck out his tongue at Wilder, flicking it around in rapid fashion. The crowd roared.

Wilder, who is 6-foot-7, came in having made seven successful defenses since winning the title with a wide unanimous-decision victory over Bermane Stiverne in January 2015 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The 6-foot-9 Fury entered with a dramatic story. He won three heavyweight championship belts with a unanimous decision over Klitschko in November 2015. Then things went haywire for Fury.

He was stripped of one of his belts because he agreed to fight Klitschko in a rematch. That fight never happened because Fury wasn’t right. He was dealing with depression and addiction to drugs and alcohol, which is why he ended up relinquishing the other two belts.

Fury also blew up to 400 pounds during his 2 1/2 years out of the ring; he tipped the scales at 256 1/2 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in; Wilder weighed just 212 1/2.

Fury came back this past June and Sefer Seferi in the fourth round. Two months later, in August, he won a 10-round unanimous decision over Francesco Pianeta.

Undefeated junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd figured to have an easy time dispatching Jason Welborn in his title defense in the semi-main event. Welborn just a year ago took on and defeated a guy (Christian Hoskin Gomez) who was 6-28-4.

As expected, Hurd retained his two championship belts with a fourth-round knockout of Welborn.

However, either Hurd purposely carried Welborn for a few rounds, or Welborn was better than most thought. He was pummeling Hurd against the ropes, landing several shots to the head, earlier in the fourth.

But when Welborn went down from a solid body punch, he just sat there and never attempted to rise until referee Lou Moret reached the count of 10 at 1:55.

Hurd, of Accopkeek, Md., is 23-0 with 16 knockouts. Welborn, who entered with just seven knockouts in 30 fights, is 24-7.

Luis Ortiz, who had Wilder hurt in the seventh round before being stopped by Wilder in the 10th when they tangled in March, was thoroughly dominant in stopping Travis Kauffman of Reading, Pa. in the 10th round of their heavyweight bout.

Ortiz decked Kauffman in the sixth, eighth and 10th rounds. When Ortiz, of Cuba, dropped Kauffman in the sixth with a left cross, Ortiz got up on the ropes and pounded his chest in celebration, as if he thought the bout was over.

But Kauffman rose and hung around to take more of a beating, the bout finally being stopped at 1:58 of the 10th as Ortiz was putting quite a hurt on Kauffman.

Ortiz is now 30-1 with 26 knockouts. Kauffman is 32-3. He seemed more interesting in surviving, than winning.

Ortiz afterward said he wanted to fight the winner of Wilder-Fury.

“I’m a warrior,” Ortiz said. “Nothing contains me. We didn’t have to knock him (Kauffman) out, but we wanted to show everything we have in our repertoire, and we showed it tonight.”